Background
Ingersoll Rand is a global conglomerate which was created by a merger between two well-established US companies. Corporate headquarters are in New Jersey and there are some 40,000 people employed throughout the world. They are deployed across a number of divisions, including construction equipment, industrial solutions (for example, air compressors), climate control (refrigeration and air conditioning), security systems and a division that makes a well-known golf-cart. Over 6,000 of these staff are employed in the Asia Pacific Region with significant concentrations in seven major counties. Some 3000 are in China and 1200 in India.
Amongst the major business challenges facing Ingersoll Rand is the need to create a culture of development and competitive leadership skills across the world. The major vehicle in place to achieve these objectives is Ingersoll Rand University which was established in year 2003. Kong Chin, who was born in Burma but spent his childhood in the US, is the University’s Director for Asia Pacific. He is based in Shanghai and is supported in his work by two professional and two administrative staff.
Implementing the corporate skills objectives
Corporate priorities are determined at an Annual Leadership Conference which all of the most senior managers attend. At this conference one or two key leadership skills are identified and these must be developed across the group at all relevant levels. In recent years these have included Channel Development (which develops distribution routes to sell company product); Sales & Marketing (which is especially important in emerging markets) and Operations Excellence (which aims to improve efficiency and productivity of the factories). Kong Chin sees his job as containing two main elements. First, he has to participate in the detailed consideration of curriculum design that arises as a result of the choice of key skill needs:
“I have to participate in a lot of conference calls at night.”
Secondly, he has to construct and deliver interventions in the region to implement the skills development agenda. The number of critical learners who need to acquire the skills identified will vary according to the priority chosen. Most of the activity to date involves taught courses; there is no infrastructure in place at this stage to ensure that other forms of learning intervention take place. Much of his local effort, therefore, is concentrated on the selection and deployment of external consultants to localise and deliver events. Where possible Kong Chin will try to separate out the regional training needs analysis, which will be undertaken by one consultancy, and delivery, which will be undertaken by another. Generally Ingersoll Rand University will try to find a global delivery partner – one consultancy or associate – that can deliver a consistent programme across the world. However this is not always possible and Kong Chin regards the choice of consultant for delivery as critical: he checks their background, meets them personally and observes the way that they deliver in the classroom.
In his words:
“I must have someone who understands the mindset of the learner”
One of his frustrations is that he cannot ensure the optimum level of service across a widespread region. At present, for example, it is difficult to get material translated into Japanese. Further human resource management infrastructure needs to be improved if the desired levels of human resource development is to take place.
Regional and cultural differences
Kong Chin perceives very real differences in learning styles across the region. He believes that cultures have different personalities. He also feels that the Confucian tradition has an effect on behaviour in Asia and it influences learning preferences, as does the method of teaching experienced at school.
Broadly he divides the countries in his region into four groups:
North Asia (which includes China, Korea and Japan)
Learners are very content orientated. They seek and need hard information and are less interested in other activities – motivational speakers using the US approach, for example, will not be well-received.
South Asia (which includes Hong Kong/Singapore/Malaysia and the Philippines)
These countries are a lot more open to the international culture and learners are receptive to diverse approaches to learning. Training events can include a range of activities beyond instruction and these can be extended beyond the classroom – for example to include action learning.
India
Any trainer used must be experienced and credible. Learners will be demanding and seek to engage in dialogue and debate and extend beyond the narrow subject areas.
Australia and New Zealand
For all practical purposes the participants here reflect a Western or European tradition and customisation of material developed in the US require less adjustment.
Although local circumstances and individual learners can vary considerably, Kong Chin has found the differences described above in meeting the main challenge of his job which he describes as:
“Determining how we fulfil a globally agreed competency model at local level.”